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Volcom Fiji Pro: Day 2 Highlights And Recap

Volcom Fiji Pro: Day 2 Highlights And Recap

Restaurants serves up the goods on day 2 of the Volcom Fiji Pro. Make sure to vote for your New Era MVPs of the day tomorrow morning (West Coast USA time) at facebook.com/TransWorldSURF for your chance to win a trip to Fiji!

Day 2 of the Volcom Fiji Pro goes down in draining, 4-6 foot surf at one of the best lefts in the world—Restaurants. Shallow, hollow, and razor sharp, Restaurants was pretty much firing for most of the day save for a few slow heats around lunchtime. Here’s a heat-by-recap of the days action:

Round 2 | Heat 1: Jeremy Flores vs. Kolohe Andino vs. Nat Young
World Tour veteran Jeremy Flores waxes the rookies in surf that looks like his home break of St. Leu on Reunion Island but more hollow and minus the tiger sharks.

Round 2 | Heat 1: Aca Lalabalavu vs. Kelly Slater
Fijian trials winner Aca Lalabalavu gave it his all but couldn’t get past Kelly Slater who channeled his inner Johnny Boy Gomes and did a crazy kick stall to barrel. To his credit, Aca executed a few crazy snaps in the pocket that had the crowd at the Tavarua bar roaring.

Round 2 | Heat 3: Adriano de Souza vs. Yadin Nicol
A super tight heat sees current the world #1 lose out to Nicol after not getting the needed score on his last wave. The consensus in the competitors area was that he was brutally robbed, “They (the judges) would never do that to other guys,” said an unnamed competitor. Ouch.

Round 2 | Heat 4: Dusty Payne vs. Joel Parkinson
After deciding not to go fishing today, current ASP World Champion Joel Parkinson beats Volcom rider Dusty Payne with a series of deep barrel rides and searing turns. We plan to join Dusty at the bar for a beer and country music later in the evening.

Round 2 | Heat 6: Glenn “Micro” Hall vs. Jordy Smith
The smallest guy on tour against the biggest guy on tour sees the South African beat “Micro”. Jordy sticks to his game plan of getting a barrel off the takeoff then doing a few massive turns. Glenn eats shit on his last wave and got chewed up by the reef pretty bad, receiving a “Tavarua Tattoo” to show off to his friends back home. “I was spewing I didn’t make that one!” said the tough little fella as blood gushed out of his leg.

Round 2 | Heat 7: Gabriel Medina vs. Kolohe Andino
In a battle of young guns, the two 19-year olds catch a ton of waves but keep falling and getting bucked off the bumpy, low tide drainers. In the end, Kolohe gets the best of last years runner up, who ends up punching his board in frustration—just like Kolohe did last year in the same round at the same event. The kid from San Clemente is beyond stoked to have beaten an event favorite.

Round 2 | Heat 8: Julian Wilson vs. Alejo Muniz
Julian sends Alejo to a “Holiday in Combo-land” in the early part of the heat; Alejo makes a match of it in the waning moments but can’t get past Jules.

Round 2 | Heat 9: Michel Bourez vs. Matt Wilkinson
Wilko does some hair flips in the barrel and a few big, swooping carves to send Michel Bourez packing. “I decided to go on the easy ones because everyone in the heat before was blowing it,” said a frothing Wilko as he ran by. Pretty sure he took a chopper back to nearby Namotu—rock star that guy!

Round 2 | Heat 10: Ace Buchan vs. Sebastian Zietz
The closest heat of the day ends with a win for Seabass on a last second buzzer beater. Never one to shy away from a good time, Seabass orders up a round of cold ones at the bar.

John John Florence. Photo: Bielmann

Round 2 | Heat 11: John John Florence vs. Bede Durbidge
John drops a 9.8 and a 10 in the first five minutes of the heat and it’s game over before it starts for Bede. “It’s so fun out there!” raves John as he chugs a PowerAde in anticipation of his next heat. To add insult to injury, Bede’s board has several chunks of coral protruding from the deck. “Lucky that wasn’t my head,” he says after congratulating John.

Round 2 | Heat 12: Nat Young vs. Filipe Toledo
NorCal Nat drops a couple 9s and the Brazilian surfers endure a tough day at the office. The rookie-on-rookie match is very one sided as the scoreboard reads 18.23 to 7.6.

Round 3 | Heat 2: John John Florence vs. Damien Hobgood
John John’s Restaurants brilliance continues as he beats former event champion Damien Hobgood by a fraction of a point. “Oh my gosh, that was so sketchy!” said John afterward. Damien gave John a big hug on the beach following their heat, “That was fun surfing against you, congratulations man!” Another reason as to why Damo is one of the most well-liked and respected guys on the World Tour.

Round 3 | Heat 3: Jordy Smith vs. Kieren Perrow
Jordy sends Kieren to a holiday in Cambodia, err, comboland. Day two of the Volcom Fiji Pro ends for the day, happy hour begins. See you all tomorrow…over and out from Tavarua!